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Waterford’s Hayes fires no-hitter to beat South Gallia in sectional, 12-0

Photo by Ron Johnston Waterford’s Colton Shriver crosses home during a sectional baseball game against South Gallia Saturday.

WATERFORD — Brock Hayes was in a mow down mood on the bump.

The Waterford senior right-hander fired a no-hitter as the sixth-seeded Wildcats mercied visiting South Gallia, 12-0, in an OHSAA Division IV sectional baseball opener Saturday.

“We finally came together as a team and did pretty decent,” Hayes said. “I wanted to swing the bat pretty bad, but Coach (Doug Huffman) wanted me to just focus on pitching. I just followed his lead, and it turned out pretty good.”

In five innings of work, Hayes fanned seven and walked none. Wyatt Rapp was the only Rebel batter to reach base safely on a Wildcat error in the second inning.

“I felt like I was throwing pretty hard,” Hayes said. “For not throwing much this year, I think I got it dialed in pretty good. Probably my best pitch was my fastball on the outside a little bit.

“And I was working on my change up and curveball some. It was cutting pretty good and I got a few of them on that.”

Offensively, Hayes had plenty of run support. Zane Heiss and Braden Bellville each had two hits to pace the Cats, who advance to play Trimble in a sectional final at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

South Gallia exited with a winless season. Senior righty Nick Hicks suffered the mound setback.

During regular-season play, the Rebs dropped two decisions to the Wildcats.

Waterford plated five runs in a bat-around in the bottom of the first. Heiss ignited the surge with a leadoff triple, and that was followed by Jude Huffman’s double and Bellville’s RBI single. The Cats then benefitted from a walk, a wild pitch and a Rebel error.

“We got some solid hits,” Hayes said. “Zane started us off with that triple, and that was pretty nice.”

In the second, Waterford stretched its lead to 10-0 with another 5-run frame. Bellville had a two-run single, while Colton Shriver and Russell Young stroked back-to-back doubles.

The Cats tacked on two more runs in the fourth with Jacob Huffman getting the big hit, a run-scoring triple to right.

Now, Waterford is hoping that the third time will be the charm when it plays at Trimble.

“Trimble’s pretty solid,” Hayes said. “They beat us both times we played them.

“But I think we can come together and give them a run for their money. I think we can do pretty decent, but we’ll find out, though.”

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